On Tuesday, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $76,600, reflecting a 0.8% decline since midnight UTC. This drop follows a brief rally on Monday that pushed prices up to $77,800, but the momentum faded quickly, indicating a potential formation of another lower high in a bearish trend that has persisted since October. Over the past two weeks, Bitcoin has fallen approximately 7%, highlighting its vulnerability in the current market environment.
The cryptocurrency’s weakness stands in contrast to broader financial markets, where S&P 500 index futures and Nasdaq 100 futures have both risen by more than 0.5%. This divergence points to crypto-specific challenges rather than overarching macroeconomic or geopolitical factors affecting traditional finance.
Ether (ETH) is currently trading at $2,098, suffering a more significant decline of over 10% in the last two weeks. It remains ensconced in the middle of the range it established between February and April, showing little indication of a rebound.
In the altcoin market, the performance has been mixed. There were notable gains among AI tokens, while tokens that had performed well earlier in the year, such as zcash (ZEC), saw significant losses, down around 7% since midnight.
In the derivatives space, the crypto futures market experienced a volume decrease of 10%, totaling $130 billion over the past 24 hours. Notional open interest (OI) has remained largely unchanged at around $126 billion, and liquidations over the same period fell 21% to $126 million. This trend suggests a stable and somewhat stagnant market condition following the long U.S. holiday weekend, though trading never truly pauses in the crypto world.
Key altcoins such as SHIB, LINK, HBAR, NEAR, and TRX saw increases in open interest, while ZEC, XLM, and HYPE experienced losses. This selective movement within the market indicates targeted capital allocation rather than widespread investment across altcoins. NEAR has notably surged, gaining 58% in the week ending on May 24, and an additional 14% since then, reaching $2.82—the highest level observed since November. This rally appears to be driven by a series of upgrades involving dynamic scaling, privacy features, and quantum defenses, attracting fresh capital into derivatives. The open interest in NEAR has skyrocketed to a record 309 million tokens, up from 182 million one week prior. Additionally, NEAR’s cumulative volume delta suggests that buyers are actively driving price movements.
Open interest for Chainlink’s LINK has also risen, reaching its highest point since early February. The annualized funding rates of approximately 8% indicate that futures are trading above the spot price, which is a bullish sign for the oracle data provider.
Conversely, Bitcoin futures have cooled off, with open interest in BTC decreasing from 793K BTC earlier this month to 711K BTC. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s OI hovers just below record levels near 15 million ETH. Both BTC and ETH’s 30-day implied volatility indexes continue to decline, suggesting ongoing volatility selling without significant panic-based demand for options. On Deribit, Bitcoin puts between $70K and $76K have emerged as some of the most traded options in the last 24 hours, reflecting a bearish market sentiment.
In terms of market benchmarks, CoinDesk’s Computing Select Index (CPUS) emerged as the top performer on Tuesday, rising by 1.9% since midnight UTC and 2.7% over the past 24 hours. The CPUS, which includes a basket of AI tokens and Chainlink, saw FET rise by 4.8% and RENDER climb by 7.2%. The DeFi Select Index (DFX) also outperformed major cryptocurrencies, recording a 1.3% increase, suggesting that investors are leaning towards more speculative investments while Bitcoin and Ether navigate their current trading ranges.
However, privacy tokens have faced declines, with Monero (XMR) and Dash (DASH) following Zcash lower by approximately 1.5% each. Meanwhile, CoinMarketCap’s “Altcoin Season” indicator stands at 35/100, a modest increase from last week’s low of 31/100 but still below the monthly high of 50/100, indicating a cautious sentiment within the altcoin market.
